Driftmetal (19 page)

When my back rubbed against the turret chair, I
yanked Norris Ponting around the side with me and sat down in it. I
pulled him across my lap so I could reach the controls. We swiveled
around in a one-eighty so the pulser cannon was pointed straight at
the hovertruck. I was a little surprised the gun had the capability
to turn that far, but I wasn’t complaining.

Norris Ponting was getting squirmy. I had the pulser
cannon as collateral now; I didn’t need him anymore. So I planted a
foot in his back and shoved him over the railing. He cried out as
he fell. One or two of the crew jerked forward, but thought better
of coming any closer. Over my shoulder, the
Galeskimmer
was
making ready to cast off. Another twenty seconds, I judged, and she
would be on her way toward clearer skies. That was when Yingler
emerged from belowdecks, picking his way up the staircase’s
wreckage and appearing from behind the hovertruck.

“I wouldn’t be so hasty,” shouted the man formerly
known as Vilaris.

“Knowing you’re on board is all the incentive I
need,” I said, rubbing the trigger button with my thumb.

“There’s something you should be made aware of,
Muller.”

“I’m already aware that killing you is going to make
me very happy,” I said. I eased the controls. The turret swiveled
until I had Yingler in the gun sights.

“Be that as it may… don’t look down. Or rather…
do.”

I did. Half a dozen sloops were rising through the
fog below my
Ostelle
, all of them flying the red-and-tan
flag of the Civil Regency Corps. The Civs had cast electronets
between their ships like a collage of spider webs.
To catch me
in case I try to jump again
, I realized. Norris Ponting was in
the closest of the nets, climbing aboard the nearest sloop with
help from the Civs.

This Yingler was a real piece of work. Not only had
he managed to befriend my parents; the scheming wretch was bold
enough to show his face to the Civs like they weren’t going to lock
him up for what he’d done. Sable and her crew were getting ready to
take the money and run, leaving me here to fend for myself after
I’d led them to the jackpot of a lifetime. And don’t get me started
on how I felt about my parents.

I’d had it with trusting people, I decided. I’d had
it with civility. This was war—even if I was the only person on my
side. Even if I was pitting myself against a world full of people
who were against me.

I pressed the trigger. Yingler erupted in blue arcs
of electromagnetic energy that shot to his feet and spread out
across the deck. People dove for cover, unsheathed their weapons,
and began to fire them at me. Before Yingler had slumped paralyzed
to the deck, I was already swiveling to face the Civs. I trained my
sights on the sloop Norris Ponting had climbed into, and fired. The
sloops were small; lighter and faster than streamboats like the
Galeskimmer
and my
Ostelle
. One pulser shot from
above carried enough burst to cover almost the entire deck and fry
every techsoul on board.

I swiveled toward the next sloop and followed up
with another well-placed shot. Every member of the crew went stiff
as a tree trunk and fell over. The clinkers on the first sloop were
going haywire, and the boat shot upward as the driftmetal runners
exerted their unchecked force. The electronets broke away, but not
before pulling an adjacent sloop so far up that half the crew went
sliding over the port railing. I didn’t stop until I’d disrupted
every Civvy ship in sight. Bullets and laser bolts and flecker
rounds were pummeling the back of the armored turret chair.

I was creating chaos, and loving every second of
it.

Then someone managed to hit the pulser cannon with a
hand pulser. It surged and went dead. At Platform 22, the
Galeskimmer
was setting off. I had half a mind to shoot it,
too. It was a good thing the cannon was out of commission, because
as soon as the
Galeskimmer
left the dock, it turned around
and came toward me.

Sable was at the helm, with Dennel and Thorley and
Mr. Scofield and Nerimund manning the four-pounders. They loosed a
volley in our direction. The air rushed past my head and the
cannonballs crashed and bounded across the deck. They reloaded and
fired once more before Sable straightened her out and came across
the bow. My parents’ crew was shooting at the
Galeskimmer
now. Eliza Kinally and Neale Glynton were returning fire with a
pair of old muskets.

Sable eased the
Galeskimmer
into place beside
us and shouted at me above the din. “Are you just gonna sit there,
or do you want a lift?”

I didn’t think twice. I leapt onto the
Galeskimmer
and rolled behind a stack of crates as she idled
past. Sable released the clinkers and took us straight up into the
fog, the whole ship rocking and lurching amid a hail of disruptive
gunfire. Then I heard something ping into one of the turbines and
go clattering around inside it.

A thousand failing brakes screeched. There was a
rush of heat, a fireball, and the sensation of being tossed around
like pasta in a strainer.

When the ship stabilized, we were still rocketing
upward through the fog. Something had hit me on the head, and I
could see only blue-violet out of my unenhanced eye. The deck was a
wreckage of bodies and burning wood, and when I tried to stand, the
force of the ship’s upward momentum kept me on my hands and knees.
Sweet merciful Leridote, how many shipwrecks am I gonna be
involved in this month?
I rolled onto my back and stared at the
approaching heights, the mast and the furled sail flapping from the
yardarm, until it all went from dark and foggy to nothing but
black.

I dreamed at hyperspeed, so I knew I was still
alive. I dreamed about Kupfer and Sable and Ma and Dad and Yingler
and the shop, and all my kid friends back home in Atherion. I
dreamed that Blaylocke was burning alive and Gilfoyle’s daughter
was dancing around the flames, singing nursery rhymes, drinking red
wine and wearing her bright yellow blanket as a cape. I dreamed my
augments were coming alive and building mechanical spiders out of
the synthetic tissues of my arms and legs. When my limbs were gone,
Chaz was controlling the whole thing, orchestrating it with a
remote control in his laboratory, talking to the spiders.

I dreamed the medallion was putting ideas into my
head, making me paranoid and forcing me to believe I was a wanted
criminal. But it was Sable’s Uncle Angus—Uncle Angus, whom I’d
never met, but who my mind made an image of—plotting at Maclin
Automation to commit my crimes for me and drop pamphlets over every
floater in the stream telling people about how I ate children and
stole loose change from old ladies and put embarrassing clothing on
defenseless statues.

I was staring at the same mast and the same furled
sail when I woke up. The sky above was bright and blue, and the
fires I’d fallen asleep to had become smoldering pillars of smoke.
I stood. We were very high up; the air that was filtering into my
lungs was thin and cold and crisp. I was used to air like this. I’d
grown up on a floater that was even higher in the stream. The
medallion was burning on my chest, its frantic algorithms racing
across my mind.

Sable was beside me, her hand on my back. “Are you
okay?” she was asking. “I didn’t want to move you. I didn’t know
how bad you’d been hurt, so I made sure you were breathing and I
let you sleep.”

I turned to her. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her
cheeks were flushed. “Where are we?”

“Somewhere above the Kalican Heights. It’s bad. The
ship’s completely disabled. One of the turbines is blown to shreds.
All the clinkers but one on the starboard side are ruined. Neale
and Eliza were on that side of the ship when it blew. They’re both
hurt bad, but I think they’ll be okay. But Landon is… Mr.
Scofield…” She couldn’t get another word out.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s my fault. You came back
to get me. You should’ve left me on my own to face what I had
coming. None of this would’ve happened.”

“Don’t,” she managed, holding up a hand. “I
can’t.”

I took her into my arms, held her. The gesture felt
awkward and stilted to me, but Sable didn’t seem to think so. She
buried her face in my jacket and whimpered, the kind of thing a
child does after they’ve been crying for a long time and there
isn’t much steam left. We stood like that for a while until she
pulled away.

“You’re glad we came back for you though. Aren’t
you?”

I allowed myself half a smile. “I’m a little
confused as to why.”

She gave me a weepy grin. “That makes two of
us.”

I laughed. “It’s so you’d have someone to be mean
to. That’s why you wanted me around.”

“I’m the captain. Being mean is what captains
do.”

“Well then, Captain. I suggest you start giving some
orders. The wind’s picking up. Just because we have one bad engine
doesn’t mean we can’t set sail. We’re filthy rich now, you know.
Getting this rig fixed up shouldn’t take more than a few days once
we find ourselves a nice secluded floater.”

“Fine,” she said. “Then hop on the bluewave and
start mapping me some coordinates. Thorley, get up on that yardarm
and set the mainsail. Mr. McMurtry, take the controls. I’ll tend to
the wounded for now. Move it, all of you!”

We would’ve sailed off into the sunset, but that’s
not where the stream was taking us. I knew one day I’d have to face
my parents again. I’d probably have to face Kupfer, and Yingler
too. Chaz, who I’d liked, but now hated for betraying me—and
Blaylocke, who I’d hated but actually started to like… before
realizing I’d been right to hate him all along. I’d have to face
them
all
again someday. But for now, the only thing that
mattered was that I was a free man. I was a free man in a world
that didn’t think I deserved to be. And despite all the terrible
garbage I’d been through—that this crew and I had been through—we
were sailing on driftmetal runners with the clouds in our hair. And
that was a damned good feeling.

Afterword

I hope you’ve enjoyed Segment One of
Driftmetal
. Remember to leave a review at your favorite
online retailer to let me and others know what you thought of the
book, then sign up for my author newsletter to receive updates on
new releases. If you’re eager for more, I have some great news –
the adventure continues in
Driftmetal II: The Skyward Realm
.
Thanks for reading!